Talking to Pets & Other Animals

We always talk with our pets, too. When I had Chipper, he understood everything I said and most things that I was thinking. Dogs can understand a lot more words than we give them credit for, mostly. It is like having a small child, the more time you spend talking to them, the more they learn.

When we first got Poodle, he didn’t know his name, and he didn’t even seem to understand that dogs have names. But before I could decide on a new name for him, he was listening to me, and he started looking when he heard me say the word “Poodle” and knew that it meant I was talking about him.
Since he understood that , I didn’t want to give him another name and make him learn all over again, so his name continues to be Poodle, but now he has a much larger vocabulary of words that he understands.

Words like “out, bedtime, bologna, chicken, and pizza” seems to be some of his favorites, but if he hears Poodle and bath in the same sentence, he will go and hide in his condo.
I think that sometimes he even tries to speak , because he says something that sounds like “oow-wuuo” when he wants to go outside, and he makes that same vocalization pretty frequently when he wants to go outside.
 
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@Mary Stetler it says the video in your #21 post is unavailable 🙁

@Ken Anderson many years ago. I took a Doberman and a Rottweiler through obedience 101. One day it dawned on me my horses could understand short sentences if they were repetitive and I use the same tone for whatever it was I wanted them to do.

I also use hand signals with my horses. When it got to the point, I could no longer ride these types of liberty training were my entertainment.

Both the horses in the first video are Tennessee Walkers and well seasoned trail horses. Sadly, they have both passed away. The horse I’m working with almost made it to 31. The other horse made it to 27. The one I’m working with is 16.1H. he’s in a tight spot and no they don’t panic because they’re used to that sort of stuff.

I taught him to come around one day because I wanted to see if he would do it. It took me about 10 minutes to teach him that.


This is that same horse in that same tight spot getting vacuumed before turn out. They all love the vacuum, just as long as I stayed away from their nether areas😳


These videos were in 2021, when I still had decent mobility.
 
Back 1994 after I fell and ended my career as a band owner and guitarist, and subsequently ended up homeless for awhile, some of the homeless people I got to know told me that I should get a dog for security. Even small dogs make excellent intruder alarms. I never did because one of the people who told me that had a dog. But as I was very dependent on my bicycle, if he wasn't there I would have. His was a German Shepard and he put a Security jacket on him. Intruders shied away from him. He was very well trained and you could even whisper commands to him and he knew exactly what you wanted.
 
You may have watched hiking videos with people who walk through the woods on what could be a time to commune with nature, saying, "Hey bear, hey bear, hey bear," over and over again. That sounds so silly to me, and I would think it would absolutely detract from the whole point of being out there. If exercise is the sole point, you may as well be on a walking path in town, where you don't have to worry about bears, or in the comfort of your own home on a treadmill.

Yeah, I get that you probably don't want to walk up on a grizzly who is unaware of your presence until you're too close, so I get the point and agree that it might keep you from getting mauled, but if I had to walk around the beautiful outdoors saying "Hey bear, hey bear, hey bear," I'd stay home and watch nature videos while on a treadmill instead.

Perhaps this is because I have never spent a lot of time in the great outdoors in grizzly country. We have black bears here, and they are generally aware of my presence long before I am ever aware of theirs; in fact, I am rarely aware of their presence because they remove themselves before I see them.

I walk as quietly as I can through the woods to maximize my chances of seeing something interesting, and I have come across deer, moose, fox, and other critters. Although a moose is far more likely to hurt you than a black bear, that doesn't detract from the capabilities of a black bear if it wanted to hurt you. From my cameras, I know that a large male black bear frequents my woods, where I have a cabin. Sometimes it shows up in clearings within a few minutes of my leaving them, but I am never aware of it at the time. From time to time, I have scattered apples near my camera sites to encourage the wildlife to stop, thus maximizing the quality of the photos, and it turns out that bears are fond of apples.

Once, while walking as quietly as an old man can walk through the woods, I came across the bear rolling around on his back on a large piece of cardboard that I had left there. When I stay up at the camp, I will maintain a short-term compost pile, away from the camp, and this time I had included a large sheet of cardboard, and the bear was having a grand old time rolling around on it. I stopped and watched him for a time, not real close, but closer than I have ever been to a bear, and he didn't notice me for a few moments. When he did, he quietly arose, walked into some ferns, and disappeared, all of ot spookily quiet.

If you're unfamiliar with bears, except perhaps for polar bears (although I only know as much as I have seen on videos and read in books about polar bears), bears are very unlikely to attack people. Nearly all acts of actual aggression towards people occur in or near national or state parks, where generations of bears have grown to associate people with food rather than danger. In other places, generations of bears have come to associate people with danger because they are hunted. That's the only logical reason why a 500-pound bear might be afraid of a fat old man in the forest.

So anyhow, if it's really necessary to walk around chanting "Hey bear, hey bear" in grizzly country, I'll stay in black bear country. I'd rather experience the outdoors while I'm in it, and if it leads to death, then the newspaper article would be way more interesting than an obituary about some old man dying in his sleep.
 
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Ken Anderson said:
You may have watched hiking videos with people who walk through the woods on what could be a time to commune with nature, saying, "Hey bear, hey bear, hey bear," over and over again. That sounds so silly to me, and I would think it would absolutely detract from the whole point of being out there. If exercise is the sole point, you may as well be on a walking path in town, where you don't have to worry about bears, or in the comfort of your own home on a treadmill.

Yeah, I get that you probably don't want to walk up on a grizzly who is unaware of your presence until you're too close, so I get the point and agree that it might keep you from getting mauled, but if I had to walk around the beautiful outdoors saying "Hey bear, hey bear, hey bear," I'd stay home and watch nature videos while on a treadmill instead.

Perhaps this is because I have never spent a lot of time in the great outdoors in grizzly country. We have black bears here, and they are generally aware of my presence long before I am ever aware of theirs; in fact, I am rarely aware of their presence because they remove themselves before I see them.

I walk as quietly as I can through the woods to maximize my chances of seeing something interesting, and I have come across deer, moose, fox, and other critters. Although a moose is far more likely to hurt you than a black bear, that doesn't detract from the capabilities of a black bear if it wanted to hurt you. From my cameras, I know that a large male black bear frequents my woods, where I have a cabin. Sometimes it shows up in clearings within a few minutes of my leaving them, but I am never aware of it at the time. From time to time, I have scattered apples near my camera sites to encourage the wildlife to stop, thus maximizing the quality of the photos, and it turns out that bears are fond of apples.

Once, while walking as quietly as an old man can walk through the woods, I came across the bear rolling around on his back on a large piece of cardboard that I had left there. When I stay up at the camp, I will maintain a short-term compost pile, away from the camp, and this time I had included a large sheet of cardboard, and the bear was having a grand old time rolling around on it. I stopped and watched him for a time, not real close, but closer than I have ever been to a bear, and he didn't notice me for a few moments. When he did, he quietly arose, walked into some ferns, and disappeared, all of ot spookily quiet.

If you're unfamiliar with bears, except perhaps for polar bears (although I only know as much as I have seen on videos and read in books about polar bears), bears are very unlikely to attack people. Nearly all acts of actual aggression towards people occur in or near national or state parks, where generations of bears have grown to associate people with food rather than danger. In other places, generations of bears have come to associate people with danger because they are hunted. That's the only logical reason why a 500-pound bear might be afraid of a fat old man in the forest.

So anyhow, if it's really necessary to walk around chanting "Hey bear, hey bear: in grizzly country, I'll stay in black bear country. I'd rather experience the outdoors while I'm in it, and if it leads to death, then the newspaper article would be way more interesting than an obituary about some oldl man dying in his sleep.
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I had a lot of game cams around my property the first few years I lived here, and never caught one pic of a bear, even though I suspect they live in my patch of woods. There's a guy whose property abuts mine, and he was telling me that he occasionally put out food scraps, sometimes turning on his game cam to see the deer he has in preparation of hunting season. One evening he put out watermelon, turned on the game cam, and went inside. He pulled the SD Card the next morning and plugged it into his PC. At 7:05PM there was a pic of him walking back to the house. At 7:10PM there was a pic of a bear, eating the watermelon. He figured it had been waiting in the woods for him to put out a snack. He stopped putting out scraps after that.

Regarding bear while hiking...the highest risk of black bears is to those who ride trail bikes. Bikers come around corners and over hills so quietly and so quickly that they are on top of the bear before either has a chance to react. As you said, when they hear you coming, they'll scamper off before you show up. Even if there are cubs present--unlike brown bears/grizzlies--they'll get their cubs to safety rather than attack.
 
Ken Anderson said:
You may have watched hiking videos with people who walk through the woods on what could be a time to commune with nature, saying, "Hey bear, hey bear, hey bear," over and over again. That sounds so silly to me, and I would think it would absolutely detract from the whole point of being out there. If exercise is the sole point, you may as well be on a walking path in town, where you don't have to worry about bears, or in the comfort of your own home on a treadmill.

Yeah, I get that you probably don't want to walk up on a grizzly who is unaware of your presence until you're too close, so I get the point and agree that it might keep you from getting mauled, but if I had to walk around the beautiful outdoors saying "Hey bear, hey bear, hey bear," I'd stay home and watch nature videos while on a treadmill instead.

Perhaps this is because I have never spent a lot of time in the great outdoors in grizzly country. We have black bears here, and they are generally aware of my presence long before I am ever aware of theirs; in fact, I am rarely aware of their presence because they remove themselves before I see them.

I walk as quietly as I can through the woods to maximize my chances of seeing something interesting, and I have come across deer, moose, fox, and other critters. Although a moose is far more likely to hurt you than a black bear, that doesn't detract from the capabilities of a black bear if it wanted to hurt you. From my cameras, I know that a large male black bear frequents my woods, where I have a cabin. Sometimes it shows up in clearings within a few minutes of my leaving them, but I am never aware of it at the time. From time to time, I have scattered apples near my camera sites to encourage the wildlife to stop, thus maximizing the quality of the photos, and it turns out that bears are fond of apples.

Once, while walking as quietly as an old man can walk through the woods, I came across the bear rolling around on his back on a large piece of cardboard that I had left there. When I stay up at the camp, I will maintain a short-term compost pile, away from the camp, and this time I had included a large sheet of cardboard, and the bear was having a grand old time rolling around on it. I stopped and watched him for a time, not real close, but closer than I have ever been to a bear, and he didn't notice me for a few moments. When he did, he quietly arose, walked into some ferns, and disappeared, all of ot spookily quiet.

If you're unfamiliar with bears, except perhaps for polar bears (although I only know as much as I have seen on videos and read in books about polar bears), bears are very unlikely to attack people. Nearly all acts of actual aggression towards people occur in or near national or state parks, where generations of bears have grown to associate people with food rather than danger. In other places, generations of bears have come to associate people with danger because they are hunted. That's the only logical reason why a 500-pound bear might be afraid of a fat old man in the forest.

So anyhow, if it's really necessary to walk around chanting "Hey bear, hey bear" in grizzly country, I'll stay in black bear country. I'd rather experience the outdoors while I'm in it, and if it leads to death, then the newspaper article would be way more interesting than an obituary about some old man dying in his sleep.
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When I had two legs I prided myself in being able to walk so flat footed that no one could hear me. I walked slow and stayed very aware of my surroundings. Now that I have three legs, I still walk slow and enjoy everything I see in the woods. We have no bears and coyotes don't seem to eat many people.
Someone yelling at bears would really annoy me.
 
A ranger once told us that we should carry bear spray and tie jingle bells on our clothes while walking in the woods. And to look for fresh bear poop.

I asked how we could determine that it was bear poop and he said, "Oh, that's easy....it smells like bear spray and has jingle bells in it."
 
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